Revisiting the Depression

Do comparisons of the present troubles to the Great Depression help to divert investors, or do they make investors more … depressed? Comparisons are inescapable in any case. Here, two economists chart a series of definitely depressing comparisons between then and now. More diverting is News from 1930, a blog that summarizes highlights from The Wall Street Journal on the corresponding date in 1930.

New Yorker subscribers have a cheerier way to revisit the bad old days. A digital archive of every issue, which the magazine used to sell on CD-ROM, is now available online. Except for dowdy fashions and primitive electronics in the ads, New Yorker issues of the 1930 don't look much more dated than those of the 1950s. Aside from occasional jibes about worthless stock certificates, you'd hardly know the Great Depression was occurring.

Certainly this ad from a June 1930 issue manages to sound positive. The global investing pitch wouldn't seem out of place today.